I am empowered!

23rd Mar 2018

My name is Jacklyn and I am a pupil at God Cares primary school in Mityana District, Central Uganda. When I first started school, things were very different and the teachers were very hard on us, so my friends and I dreaded school because of this.

However, in 2017, when Fields of Life introduced the I AM GIRL campaign in our school, we were challenged to become champions for transformation. I quickly took the opportunity and was delighted to be selected as part of the programme. As an I AM GIRL champion, I have gained a lot of knowledge and new skills through the training I have received. I have learned about appropriate sanitation and hygiene, I can now make my own liquid soap and re-usable menstrual pads and I am also trained in child protection.

In my school, many girls used to suffer a lot during menstruation. We did not have the sanitary materials that we needed as they are very expensive, therefore, some of us had to use rags from old clothes which were not always clean. However, now we are so grateful because through the I AM GIRL campaign, we have been taught to make our own re-usable menstrual pads. Before the I AM GIRL campaign, boys in our school would laugh at us and tease us if our uniforms got stained during menstruation, but now that has changed because even the boys have been taught that menstruation is natural and normal and that without it, babies cannot be born.

As an I AM GIRL Champion, I want to share my new skills with other people so I formed an I AM GIRL group in my school and together we made liquid soap, re-usable menstrual pads and other craft materials which we displayed at our parents day. This made our parents and other visitors very happy!